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This starts a whole new saga in the Wolverine series. The story covers Wolverine Volume 4, Issues 17-19. The kick off saga made up of multiple arcs came to a close in the last issue. This arc sets the stage to kick off the Wolverine and the X-Men title where he becomes headmaster reopening Xavier’s school in Westchester.

As always it takes a village to make a comic and I want to give them credit for it. Here’s this team: Jason Aaron, Writer; Ron Garney, Art; Jason Keith, Color Art; Ron Garney with Jason Keith, Cover Art; VC’s Cory Petit, Letterer; Jared K. Fletcher, Designer; Jody Leheup, Assistant Editor; Jeanine Schaefer, Editor; Nick Low, Group Editor; Axel Alonso, Editor In Chief; Joe Quesada, Chief Creative Officer; Dan Buckley, Publisher; and Alan Fine, Executive Producer.

All images are the property of their owners I reproduce them here under the Fair Use Doctrine of the copyright law for commentary and critique. No more than three pages total from any one issue is reproduced.

This story violates my ‘jump-the-shark’ rule for MY X-Men. No aliens, no magic, no supernatural stuff are allowed in my favorite X-Men stories. You might like that stuff in YOUR X-MEN and more power to you, glad there are arcs for both of us.  I can take these things in other titles where they fit but they don’t fit in my X-Men or for that matter when I read Batman. This story brings me so many violations I had to put it away for months and talk myself up to reading it. The pretty art helped lure me to tolerate it. Also I decided to take it laughingly – NOT seriously.

That said, the only thing that was value to me in this arc was James’s announcement of his new purpose – to start a school and not lose any more kids. He’s out to get all the money he’s stashed all around the world over his years of wandering to put into this dream. He’ll reopen it in Westchester NY where Xavier’s school was. In doing this James also saves one of his favorite bars, Harry’s Hideaway, from bankruptcy with his tab alone.

What I don’t like is the meat of the whole arc between that takes place between those events. For those who did, GREAT!  I’m happy for you. But I found it just too fantastical. James gets Indiana Jones’s boy companion from the Temple of Doom. He also acquires a talking gorilla private investigator partner while physically going underground in San Francisco to battle the opium drug trade to get his money back. You see, there are HUGE (the size of Australia) opium fields under the earth manned by slaves who have real dragons as beasts of burden. Lost you too huh? Wait until you see them get the talkative Sumo wrestler and all three men get swallowed by dragons to go undercover in da bellies!

The fun part of this whole thing was the banter between James, Gorilla, and Sumo.  The battle was boring and stupid because of where it was and it involved magic.  I didn’t care beyond James getting his money.  I was like Porter in Payback just get the money and it’ll be over. I did enjoy how Melita managed to make the move to New York to be with her man. That was just a side framing story to the whole nonsense in the underground opium fields. In the end – good wins and surfaces (again literally) in Westchester in time to save Harry’s Hideaway from closure.  James is all set to start his school. So anything that saves a bar, a relationship, and a school can’t be a total waste of three issues can it?

As for the art I have praise. I think the covers are pretty. It’s a whole new team since the big saga has wrapped. I really like the formatting of them. The elements are put together to catch the eye. The first one is the start of a big journey from rogue lone wolf team member to headmaster of a school with real adult worries like financing the school and such. Dragon one is interesting and I laughed at turning the title character on his head for his cover. All in all they are what I want in a cover – reflects the story while catching the eye.

The interior art is also pretty. I enjoyed it and wished it was there to tell me a more serious story. At times it’s a bit too sketchy for me but that’s being really nit-picky. Even nit-pickier is when that damn underbite shows up for James. Other than that I’d put this up as art I’d like to see again.

Next arc is a war between Japanese crime families in the arc of two titles and five books, And Then There Was a War/Back In Japan, Wolverine Vol. 4 Issues 20, 300-303.  Yeah we’ll chat about that whole issue numbering thing later, really WTF Marvel? Along with why can’t the dead just stay dead?

Until then enjoy the spoilery panels/pages comments after the jump.

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Though not numbered as an arc these two stories fit together and close the huge arc that’s been developing since volume 4 started.  It is told in Wolverine Vol. 4 Issues 15 and 16.

All images are the property of their owners I reproduce them here under the Fair Use Doctrine of the copyright law for commentary and critique. No more than three pages total from any one issue is reproduced.
The credits are as follows: Jason Aaron, Writer; Goran Sudzuka, Art; Matthew Wilson, Color Art; Jae Lee with June Chung, Cover Art; VC’S Cory Petit, Letterer; Jared K. Fletcher, Designer; Jody Leheup, Assistant Editor; Jeanine Schaefer, Editor; Nick Lowe, Group Editor; Axel Alonso, Editor In Chief; Joe Quesada, Chief Creative Officer; Dan Buckley, Publisher; Alan Fine, Executive Producer.  It takes a village to make a comic.

I’ll start with the art.  Again the same cover team as the other issues in this volume. There things I love and things I hate about both these covers.  First off the wolves, wolves don’t look like that.  They don’t have coats like that. They don’t have musculature like that.  Wolves just don’t look like that.  I will say the posture of the one in silhouette is good but if as artists you are going do so well with anatomy of the human body use that talent with the anatomy of animal bodies too!

Second I have an issue with James having an underbite on both covers.  He’s never had an underbite.  Aaron and I each had one but braces fixed it for us.  This dental hygienist’s daughter can’t take bad teeth.  I can take the slightly oversized upper and lower canines on him.  That’s been done so much to suggest the animalistic aspect of his nature.  A visual reminder of his always struggling against his beast nature.  However, I can’t stand by and watch bad orthodonture be depicted.  My up-bringing won’t let me.

That said let me say I like the face and format of issue 16.  It’s excellent and interesting.  The red is very eye-catching and the off-center half face shot grabs you.  The claws on display unite the elements.  It’s an excellent cover.  I even like the position of his fingers there, unique and eye catching.

Interior art is fine. At times it’s very pretty, at other times it’s off for me. I’m not sure how, it just is. I don’t dislike but something, too something at times. At times seems to me to be a very talented novice that’s not found their voice yet. That’s how I would describe it if it were a written piece. Too studied, too following the formula, now owned and expressed by the artist’s individuality. It’s a hard line to walk in comics to hold to the tropes and be original. It takes talent and experience to do it. Same goes for genre writers – hold to the required tropes but express your own voice. Only comes with the confidence, insight, and comfort that experience can give.

In the story James is dealing with the heartbreak of learning the last five people he killed, the Marauders, were his children.  No, he didn’t know they existed but once he got into the Red Right Hand’s inner sanctum to find them all dead (think Masada) there was the proof he’d just killed his own children.  His revenge hurt him deeply, he joined the Red Right Hand whose membership requires death of family caused by Wolverine.  He can’t blame mind possession this time – he was in full control of himself.  He did it willingly and against the advice of his BFF, who is now an angel.

In issue 15 we see him wallow in that pain. Of course he runs to the Canadian wilderness to go wildman at some point in this wallow. He does all he can to numb himself against it, almost killing himself over and over, drinking to drunken hallucinations but always his healing factor brings him back.  To say he hits rock bottom isn’t going too far. In issue 16 he finds himself. Partly because he saves a group of children and returns them to his family and partly because Melita is once again strong enough to fight for her man.

I was disappointed with the final pages of issue 16.  It was a stupid over the top ending to what was a character changing emotional issue.  There are funny pages of various superheroes telling Melita who Wolverine is to them.  The big two page spread of ‘here’s your friends’ was so sappy and so dopey.  It annoyed me so much I physically dropped the issue.  I felt it was a grand disservice to the more moving mature aspects of what James was going through this time as he comes out of the emotional fire with a purpose to help kids like the ones he never knew he had.  (Had to happen with his man-whore ways, condoms James use them). Instead we get this ending that seems to have come from the mind of a 5-year-old – “And then, and then, ALL his SUPER HERO friends show up to stand together for him!”  pfft stupid.

Which I guess is it’s okay to have a hokey ending since we are set up now to enter a really hokey three book arc, Goodbye Chinatown.  Did not like it as it violated my ‘no magic or aliens’ in my X-Men rule way too much.  Even with my fingers in my ears shouting LA-LA-LA I couldn’t ignore it.

The good things to come out of Wolverine No More/Wolverine Forever are major.  James realize he is a hero by nature and can do a world of good.  He took on the mission of helping kid be kids and protecting them.  I feel he did this to honor his kids that are gone, the ones he killed and buried with his own hands.  He also realized these revenge marches have consequences beyond no more bad guys.  I think that’s a lot of character growth bought at a very bitter price.  If Marvel has the guts to keep that growth as part of him and build on it then this whole going to hell and Red Right Hand was one of the best Wolverine arcs ever.  If they don’t it falls to just another mind controlled/revenge arc for Wolverine. We have too many of them as it is.

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